Bluatsauger

Medium undead, neutral evil

Armor Class 14 (boneless hide)

Hit Points 88 (16d8 + 16)

Speed 30 ft., climb 30 ft.

STR 14 (+2) · DEX 16 (+3) · CON 12 (+1) · INT 11 (+0) · WIS 13 (+1) · CHA 15 (+2)

Saving Throws Dex +5, Wis +3

Skills Deception +4, Perception +3, Stealth +7

Damage Vulnerabilities radiant; piercing damage from wooden stakes

Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks

Damage Immunities poison

Condition Immunities grappled, poisoned, prone

Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 13

Languages Common (Bavarian dialect), one other language it knew in life

Challenge 4 (1,100 XP)

Traits

Amorphous. The bluatsauger can move through a space as narrow as 1 inch wide without squeezing. It has advantage on ability checks made to initiate or escape a grapple, and effects can’t knock it prone.

Regeneration. The bluatsauger regains 10 hit points at the start of its turn if it has at least 1 hit point and hasn’t taken radiant damage or piercing damage from a wooden stake since its last turn.

Garlic Aversion. The bluatsauger can’t willingly move within 5 feet of an exposed clove or braid of garlic. While within that distance of garlic, it has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks.

Stake Vulnerability. If the bluatsauger takes piercing damage from a wooden (typically hawthorn) stake, the damage is doubled, and its Regeneration trait ceases to function until the end of its next turn.

Grave Earth (1/Day). As an action the bluatsauger stuffs a fistful of soil from its grave into the mouth of one incapacitated or restrained humanoid within 5 feet. The target must succeed on a DC 13 Constitution saving throw or be cursed. A cursed creature that dies rises after 1d4 hours as a bluatsauger under the DM’s control. The curse can be ended with remove curse or similar magic before the creature dies.

Actions

Multiattack. The bluatsauger makes two Claw attacks. It can replace either attack with Blood Drain.

Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 3) slashing damage plus 2 (1d4) necrotic damage.

Blood Drain. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature that is grappled by the bluatsauger, incapacitated, or restrained. Hit: 9 (2d4 + 4) necrotic damage, and the bluatsauger regains hit points equal to the necrotic damage dealt. The target’s hit-point maximum is reduced by the same amount. The reduction lasts until the target finishes a long rest, and the target dies if this reduces its maximum to 0.

Bonus Actions

Boneless Slide. The bluatsauger contorts through cracks and openings. It moves up to its speed without provoking opportunity attacks, provided it ends this movement in an opening no wider than itself or in dim light or darkness.

Reactions

Malleable Escape. When a creature tries to grapple the bluatsauger, it can make a Dexterity saving throw (DC equals the grapple check result). On a success, the grapple fails.

Lore

A skeleton-less vampire with huge eyes and a body covered in thick fur.

The Bluatsauger phenomenon occupies a special place in the European lore of vampiric revenants. The word Bluatsauger is preserved mainly in Bavarian dialects and literally means “blood-sucker”; standard German favors the spelling Blutsauger, while archival documents sometimes give Blut Aussauger. The dialect form reflects South-German phonetics, yet the legend itself carries Balkan roots: during the Habsburg era, tales of vampire hysteria recorded by army doctors and officials in Bosnia-Herzegovina drifted into Upper Bavaria, where they merged with local notions of the Nachtzutzler (“night sucker”) and the Totbeißer (“dead-biter”).

Folk belief laid out a list of conditions that could turn a corpse into a Bluatsauger. Foremost were religious or social deviations—unbaptized infants, sinners excommunicated by the Church, suicides, sorcerers—all viewed as potential bearers of a post-mortem curse.

From Vampire Bestiary 5E, p. 32 · Fern Flower Press